Konoha Ai
by Doctor Meowzie
Summary: NejiSakuShika. Sakura wants to help Tsunade as much as she can, and little did she know that she will be of biggest help to her: how about acting Hokage for a week? ON HIATUS.
1. Mission

**A/N:** Welcome to _Leaf Love_!

Semi-AU. Pro-Sakura. This idea came to my head and I tried typing it out, so here it is now. It doesn't have a particular genre since I plan this to be random, but expect romance to develop. If you read it, don't forget to review too.

I decided on NejiSaku and ShikaSaku… they need more love.

**DISCLAIMER:** You know the sheesh kebob.

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**KONOHA AI  
**Doctor Meowzie

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It was quite a beautiful and peaceful day in Konohagakure; as the wind blew gently westward and the birds chirped merrily until forever, a pink-haired kunoichi lazily walked along the village streets, carrying a pile books on the palms of her outstretched arms.

She sighed; this day was as boring as usual, her shift at the hospital has just ended an hour ago, and no missions were assigned to her as of yet. The Fifth Hokage had ordered her to bring her some books that contain the record of the hospital's past patients and that she needed them. Why so, she doesn't know. All she knew about the matter was that her shishou was always the busiest person in the village, and that she couldn't complain, what with Tsunade's bad temper and all.

That was not the only thing that made her day boring, though. Naruto, with Kiba, Shino and Hinata, was on a mission to Kusagakure and had been away for two weeks already. His presence was never boring, she thought, and he was good and cheerful company that has never failed to brighten her day. Today, he was in a faraway village, so he won't be able to do that.

Yamanaka Ino was out on a B-rank mission with Asuma and Chouji too (Shikamaru couldn't go, though; he was busy with the incoming Jounin Exams). They had just left early this morning, about two hours ago, and there was never a B-rank mission that lasted for less than two hours, so Sakura knew better than to hope her loud friend would be there to spend the day with her leisurely.

Rock Lee was on a 'super-duper ass-kickingly hard and special' new taijutsu training program (Sakura wondered if her memory got the lame adjectives right) which his sensei has recently devised. Tenten told her that when she had asked, so Lee and Gai were off, training off in God-knows-where.

Sigh.

Her only option was to train. Not that she hated to do so; she actually loves breaking rocks and things (admit it, you'd love to do that too) and warm up with her jutsus, but she just felt like she wanted some company for this day.

An inevitably boring day.

When she arrived at the entrance of the Hokage's tower, she suddenly felt her arms ache. She didn't lay any chakra on her arms since she deemed the work to be easy even for normal strength. Her expression dimmed considerably; now she knew what Kotetsu and Izumo, who were always ordered to carry stuff, felt. She always hears them complaining under their breaths about it when she passes them in the tower.

Since she was fully loaded, Sakura couldn't knock on the door of Tsunade's office, so instead she yelled to the other side of the door, "Shishou! I have the books you need, and I can't knock---!"

She stopped in mid-sentence when the door opened for her to enter. When she had set foot in the room, her green eyes scanned the area.

Shikamaru stood near the door; one hand in his pocket, the other grasping the door knob; clearly, he was the person who had opened the door when she arrived. He nodded in greeting to her, which she replied with a nod as well, plus a small smile.

He turned his head to the Hokage, who sat behind her desk and was submerged in books and paperwork, and spoke coolly, "I'm off, Hokage-sama."

"Ah" was the blonde's reply as Shikamaru walked off. She then said to her apprentice, "Thanks for bringing the books; place them there…" She pointed to another table beside Sakura.

Nodding, Sakura placed them on the table, producing a soft 'THUD.'

"Tsunade-shishou… I'm going now…" she said softly, glancing at her mentor.

Without looking at her direction, Tsunade continued to scan an opened book on her desk and said, "Hm? Oh yes, thank you, Sakura…"

When she closed the door so quietly that it didn't make even the slightest of all sounds, Sakura can only sigh. She wanted to help her shishou badly… well, the errands thing is part of the help she can give, but Sakura wanted to help her in the documents she so often scans. It looks like the blonde was serious enough in her Hokage's work to even let others help her, but she's always busy, and no one would want to disturb busy people.

Thinking it won't do any good to think about it further, the pinkhead began walking towards the doors that serve as the entrance and exit of the Hokage's tower.

* * *

Hours had passed dully after Sakura had brought her the documents she needed, and Tsunade could only rub her forehead with her palm in uneasiness with all the stuff she has scanned. 

When her hazel orbs seemed to see double vision already, she closed her eyes and sat with her back and shoulders relaxed as she took in a deep breath of oxygen. It was good that the day was as peaceful as it could get… no rain, no alien invasions, no loud mouths and disturbances, no wars… yet…

Ever since word has reached her that Grass may be planning to wage war against Leaf, she could only get more wary and do her own 'little' research with the matter at hand.

When Neji's jounin platoon (which consisted of him, Aburame Shino and two other random guys) had arrived weeks ago, they were badly beaten and so covered in their own and their enemies' blood; each had at least five broken bones and had to stay in the hospital for at least one week for recovery. They had been sent on a mission to guard some VIP dude out there and while they were at it, they took the chance to collect a scroll that held confidential Hokage secrets; apparently, someone from Grass actually had some stinking guts to steal it from its hiding place somewhere near the Leaf's forest boarders, where it had been hidden for decades already.

Getting the needed scroll had been easy for the platoon, but they found two other scrolls (which were hidden near the location of the first scroll, Neji spotted using his ever-so-worth-of-envy Byakugan), and thought it best to include those too. So, they had arrived in Konoha with three scrolls at hand, which had Tsunade raising a brow in interest. Upon receiving the other two extra scrolls, she immediately read them, and after doing so, Tsunade could only go 'WTF!' with the new information that they were able to unearth.

The second scroll contained Grass' war tactics against their own village while the third scroll had the names of the attack's leaders written on it.

She grit her teeth at the thought. _Allies, my ass…_

As she had scanned the more than twenty names that were listed on the third scroll, one name had specially caught her attention.

Okama Hatsuki.

It was a strangely, vaguely familiar name.

Deeming that she shouldn't rest too long, she opened her eyes wearily and went back to scanning a record of the hospital's past patients. When she turned the page…

BINGO.

Hatsuki's page had a picture of himself, the times he had checked in and out of the hospital, and a thorough list of the injuries he had acquired. There were quite a number of records for him though… must have been on missions frequently…

She pondered even more deeply. Ah, yes… this man was an acquaintance of her now deceased friend, Hatake Sakumo. She had seen this man a few times before she had left Konoha. So… if Okama Hatsuki's name was in the list of the hospital's past patients and was also found in the third scroll of the list of leaders for the planned war…

No doubt about it, this man's a traitor of Leaf.

As a silent question ran through her head, Tsunade reached for a book at the edge of her desk. It was an old book, one of the many tomes which contain information and profiles of all Konoha shinobi. She opened to the middle of the book, and after turning a few pages, she finally reached Hatsuki's profile.

The record held the ages he became genin, chuunin and jounin, the number of missions he had accomplished, a graph of his skills, names of his teammates and such. Based on it, she came up with the most salient conclusion on the information: he wasn't an outstanding ninja.

It also stated that most of the A-class missions he had had were in Grass Village, then he would end up in the hospital after the mission was over. Tsunade sweat-dropped at this and thought it better not to openly comment, just so as not to ruin the mood at the time.

'_If that's so, it's possible that he's had negotiations with Grass during missions he was there. Grass hadn't even declared themselves allies of Leaf as far as I can remember. Maybe this man offered his service to Grass when he had a chance, and the Grass didn't trust him so they torture him instead, sending him to the hospital. And with the rest of the information we got, surely he had succeeded in persuading Grass. Tch.'_

Right after she had figured things out (or rather came up with a conclusion), a loud knock came from the other side of her door, sounding in her ears. Sighing irritably, she yelled out, "Enter!"

Shizune burst through the doors hastily, clutching a piece of paper in her right fist, and panting for breath before saying in a serious tone, "Tsunade-sama, here's a note for you. And it's… it's…"

Obviously, Shizune had read the note. Tsunade reached for the note and read its contents immediately. Her eyes moved from top to bottom before narrowing dangerously.

"Damn it…" she cursed.

"Tsunade-sama, will you… comply…?" Shizune inquired slowly.

The blonde whacked the piece of paper on her desk, not too strong to break it in half. She placed her elbows on her desk and the fingers of both her hands met, where her chin sat. This was NOT good…

She had more things to think over. Not that she was indecisive; there were just too many things to consider, all for the welfare of Konoha.

'_That's why I don't like office work, especially that of a Hokage's.'_

Shizune stood there, waiting for the Fifth, who was discerning the matter so deeply. Silence rang through the room and both women were motionless for quite a while, before Tsunade furrowed her brows, cursed under her breath, leaned back, and said with a strong voice fit for a Hokage, "Call Hyuuga Neji, Nara Shikamaru and Haruno Sakura. Tell them to come here immediately."

Standing straight, Shizune bowed to the Hokage and walked briskly out of the room.

'_Wrong timing… Orochimaru.'_

At least Akatsuki was not part of her list.

* * *

Sakura had just chowed down the last of her Ramen when Shizune had come up to her and told her that she needed to see the Hokage immediately. 

"Why, Shizune-san? You look… tensed…"

"Tsunade-sama can answer that question. You should go now."

She nodded obediently and placed her bills on the table, beside her empty bowl, and walked off towards the direction of her mentor's office as Shizune followed her wake.

Inner Sakura sprang to life and declared, **_"You rock dudette! A mission must be waiting for us! Can't wait, can you?"_**

'_You bet'_, Sakura thought in reply to her Inner self.

* * *

As she stepped in the tower of the Hokage's office, Sakura suddenly thought that she must be getting her hopes up into thinking that she would be assigned a mission, when Tsunade might just be asking her assistance to research for something. 

'_Even so, at least I can help.'_ She thought dismissively.

Her uncertainty cleared when she opened Tsunade's office door to see two other comrades standing in front of the blonde's desk.

Nara Shikamaru, with pocketed hands, and Hyuuga Neji, with crossed arms, looked over their shoulder at the newcomer who nodded to them in greeting. They nodded as well.

"**_This will definitely be a mission!"_** Inner Sakura cheered happily.

She silently made her way to stand in front of Tsunade's desk as well as Shizune closed the door and stood behind the three jounin.

"Now that all of you are here," Tsunade spoke calmly, a sense of authority present in her voice, "let's start. I am sure you are aware of Grass' desire to wage war against us; word of that has got out a week ago. Hyuuga, you had given me two other scrolls aside from the one that was needed --- the second scroll held their tactics in attacking our village, while the third was a list of names of the so-called 'leaders' of the planned invasion."

Neji nodded, and then the blonde continued.

"A man named Okama Hatsuki has his name written on the third scroll, but as I scanned information on Konoha ninjas, his profile was present as well. Clearly, he had betrayed Konoha for Grass and is now a missing-nin. Now he's helping Grass' in their attempt to destroy us."

"So… is our mission to spy on Grass?" Sakura inquired softly.

Tsunade smiled somewhat slyly at them before replying an answer they did not expect.

"No."

They were somewhat taken aback, judging by the slight twitch of their eyes, while Inner Sakura had her world crushing down on her. **_"WHAT THE HELL?"_**

"Because it looks like Orochimaru" --- Sakura jerked slightly --- "has plans. This information is highly confidential, and I'm telling the three of you because you will be of help. Once Naruto arrives, you can tell him, but still be discreet on this…

"Apparently, he wants me to meet him. Why, I don't entirely know, but he told me that before he decides to help Grass destroy Konoha, we need to meet. I'm taking Shizune with me."

Shikamaru spoke in a lazy yet attentive tone, "Wait, Tsunade-sama. You said you're meeting him. So you mean…?"

"Yes. I'll be leaving."

Their eyes widened in shock. Tsunade will be leaving at a time Konoha is under a threat and would soon fall on the hands of grass-nins?

"Bad timing, but I had no other choice. Orochimaru has something planned, I'm sure of it. And when I see that bastard, I'll kill him," the Hokage said in a soft voice etched with deep hate and resentment.

Sakura watched her mentor in concern. At least she will be of big help to her mentor. She then said, "So… what can we help you, Hokage-sama…?"

The blonde smiled yet again as she spoke strongly in all her Hokage power to the three jounin.

"I'm leaving the village under your care."

She then stood up from her seat behind the desk, shooting to her full height, and ordered, "I'll be leaving tomorrow and I'll be away for about a week. I want the three of you to lead the village; you will protect the village and watch over it. For this S-Rank mission, I want not only your cooperation, but also something which the three of you posses: intelligence. Sakura…?" she added, looking at the pinkhead who was listening attentively.

"Hai?"

Tsunade smiled warmly at her, the way a mother does to her child.

"Take care of the village."

**TBC **

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**A/N: **I guess you know what Tsunade implied there. Anyway, if I don't get enough reviews, I won't update. You can tell me who you want Sakura to end up with.

'Okama' means gay, I think. It's an offensive word though.


	2. Morning

**A/N: **OK. I'm back. Sorry for the almost infinitely long wait. If anyone wants to ask for an explanation on my extremely delayed update, you may. But anyway, welcome back to my fic. Thanks to everyone who reviewed! Chapter 2 is finally here! This is unBETAed, so I'm so sorry for making you bear with the errors and inconsistencies!

**DISCLAIMER: **Naruto and certain elements © Masashi Kishimoto

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**KONOHA AI  
**© Doctor Meowzie

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Two.2  
**Morning**

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The morning light's brightness caused her to stir in her peaceful sleep. Her face contorted in a sour expression, she slowly opened her eyes, putting a hand up to block the light that shone through the windows of the room.

Sitting up from her chair, she looked around through sleepy eyes; she had slept on a table full of books, scrolls, papers and brushes. The morning heat that went through the glass behind her warmed her back and helped in waking her up more. She then stared right at a door that was too familiar to her…

Then she remembered.

She was in the Hokage's office, sitting on the Hokage's chair, and had been doing the Hokage's paperwork last night.

Inwardly chiding herself, she almost completely forgot that she was doing one of the most important missions in her life, which was to take charge of Konoha in place of the Fifth Hokage, who was off to settle things with an evil snake of a shinobi feared other than the Akatsuki, Orochimaru. Why else she be here doing a tremendously large amount of paperwork?

'_Uh… I slept in the middle of reading all these…' _She stared down at the pile of papers and such in front of her. Blaming herself for falling asleep in the middle of important work, she slightly jumped from her seat when a loud, impatient knock reverberated from the other side of the door.

Before she can say a drowsy 'Come in,' the door burst open in a fashion where it was nearly blown off its hinges. And who else is rude enough to do something like that in the Hokage's office EARLY in the MORNING…?

"Sakura-chan!!!"

Naruto was standing in front of her obviously irritated self. Judging from the sweat of his face, Naruto had dashed all the way from God knows where up to the office, and dude, was he NOT panting in exhaustion?

"What, Naruto?" she asked in a voice that was surely not pleased.

"I heard from them," Naruto started, "Baa-chan left. When?"

"Yesterday."

Naruto stared at her. "Well then, if that's so… WHO IS GONNA TAKE CARE OF THE VILLAGE?"

Sakura picked her ears.

"That Old Hag!" Naruto comically ranted, throwing his hands up in the air, "Why should she leave at this time?! Didn't she tell us that Akatsuki is very active at this point in time AND that Grass isn't our ally anymore?! Well, I can always sneak around and patrol the village boarders, she can count on me to do it, but we have NO Hokage right now! That'd be drastically putting down our defenses, she should've—"

"Naruto."

"Huh?"

"Where do you think we are?" Sakura managed to ask in a calm tone.

"Huh?" asked a confused Naruto.

"Where do you think we are?" She repeated with the tiniest hint of a vein throbbing on her temple.

"Uh… in the Hokage's office?"

"Yes, and where does the Fifth always sit?"

"Uh… in her chair behind that desk…" He pointed to the desk with the Fire kanji in front of him.

"Yes, and who's currently sitting on her chair?"

"Uh… you…"

"Yes."

Silence.

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!????????????"

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Neji hurriedly entered the door to the Hokage's office that was ajar upon hearing Naruto's loud scream of 'WHAT?!'.

"Naruto, you're so loud!" Sakura scolded him.

WHAM!

She punched the top of his head, and it was clearly effective in shutting him up as he rubbed his hair with teary eyes, muttering Ows and Ouches under his breath.

Neji couldn't help but slightly, only VERY slightly, twitch his eyes.

"What… is going on here?" he blurted out in annoyance.

"NEJI!!!"

The tall Hyuuga's normally blank face nearly distorted into a look that didn't fit his handsome face when Uzumaki Naruto yelled at him and said in a loud voice, "Neji! You told me Tsunade-baa-chan had left… But Sakura-chan… did you know that Sakura-chan is acting Hokage???!!!"

He gritted his teeth with his mouth shut and replied in a calm manner, "Yes. That is her mission. Our mission. Tasked by the Hokage herself."

Sakura smiled at Neji and said to Naruto, "Yeah, and it's good that you know I'm only _acting _Hokage. I know you just came back from your mission, Naruto, and as one of Konoha's top medic-nin, I advise you to go home and get some rest."

Naruto's shoulders dropped and sighed.

"But Sakura-chan? What is your mission? And why did Tsunade-baa-chan leave anyway?"

"Naruto," Sakura drawled, "_you need rest._ Go home now. Don't worry, I'll keep in mind that we owe you an explanation for all this."

Neji silently looked at her. _We?_

Sakura noticed the look Neji was giving her and she nodded at him.

The blonde's eyebrows shot up and, just as Neji had in a way done, he asked, "We?"

Sakura nodded at him brightly. "Yep. Neji, Shikamaru and I."

Naruto crossed his arms and thoughtfully glanced at his pink-haired teammate. It's good that she didn't have any plans on leaving him hanging clueless about the matter, but what got him was the fact that the three people Tsunade assigned on this mission were Haruno Sakura, one of the village's top medic-nin and apprentice of the Fifth herself, Hyuuga Neji, top ANBU captain and heir to the Hyuuga clan head throne, AND Nara Shikamaru, a lazy bum with a killer IQ of over 200. It was a team of absolutely skilled ninja, with their abilities and intelligence and all.

He suddenly felt exhausted from his mission and from dashing all the way up to the Hokage's office, and with another sigh gave in to the pinkhead's request.

"OK, Sakura-chan, I'll go home now. I'll come back later, neh? See ya, Neji."

With a palm trying to stifle a healthy yawn, he POOFed his way out of the office.

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"It's really nice of you to help me out, Neji. All these stuff are such trouble; no wonder shisou is always in a bad mood. I hope this doesn't get in the way of your schedule, if there is anything more important you have to do."

Neji, who was standing in front of her, looked up from the papers he had been scanning in his hand to glance at the pinkhead who was massaging her temple, her eyes closed. When Naruto had left earlier, he decided to aid Sakura in her Hokage work, seeing as how all unchecked documents never seem to lessen.

He smiled slightly at her and replied, "Nothing to be worried about, Sakura. The only important deed in my schedule is the mission. I deem this as part of our mission as well, and I perfectly know that I owe you quite a lot."

Sakura smiled at him. If there're some things she had to thank for making her know him more and letting her create a bond with him, one of them was the hospital. When Tsunade decided that Sakura's skills and knowledge as a medic-nin would suffice for the real thing, she had assigned her to work in Konoha Hospital to gain actual experience other than on missions outside the village. One of the very first patients she had was a Hyuuga Neji who came back from an S-Rank mission; when he was rushed into the ER for the med team to look at him – Sakura was part of that team – he was not a pretty sight to see. He had several cuts and bruises all over, a major whole near his right shoulder that surely had been impaled by a katana, at least five broken bones and blood was all over the sheets. He had been in pain all throughout the operation, and Sakura was impressed when he tried with all difficulty to ask if all the members of his platoon were alive before letting unconsciousness take over.

He stayed at the hospital for a week of recovering after coming back from that mission. It was during this week when Sakura had an actual interaction with the Hyuuga. She had first thought of him as a completely taciturn man who only talks when the matter falls in the 'mission' and 'clan responsibility' category, though this theory was proven wrong when she had decent and witty conversations with him during her visits to his ward. They had talked about serious subjects such as politics, chakra and jutsu, and the random ones like interests, favorites, and heck, even joked about Naruto's loudness. Though she did most of the laughing and he mostly smiled of smirked, something in Sakura made her think that this friendship was one of the most beautiful things she ever had.

She grinned brightly and said, "Thanks."

She turned her head to look at the glass window behind her, checking the weather and the streets of Konoha.

"I wonder how Shikamaru is doing," she muttered, though loudly for the two shinobi in the room to hear. "He must have been muttering at least ten '_How troublesome'-s_, having to start patrolling the forests early in the morning. Heh, that guy sure is as lazy as he's smart."

As what the three jounin had decided, one of the males were to patrol the village borders with the regular ANBU patrollers at certain periods when the other would be staying within the village grounds. Sakura on the other hand would do Tsunade's work; she was to stay in the village, most of time sitting in the office approving or rejecting incoming documents according to her judgment, and _that_, according to her, was the worst job to be ever done by a ninja dubbed as 'best.' She wondered if this might discourage the ever impatient Naruto in pursuing his dream, but then again, maybe not. He was a stubborn guy.

Neji glanced outside at Konoha and said in an amused tone, "I could not agree more. Shikamaru takes every mission seriously and by heart though. It is good that his strategic abilities amend for his laziness, then."

"Hehe, yeah."

The pale-eyed Hyuuga eyed her with concern and asked, "Have you eaten anything already, Sakura?"

She scratched her head and grinned. "Eh… no."

Neji sighed and placed the papers he was holding on the desk in front of him. "Come, we're going out."

Sakura blinked at him. "Eh? To…?"

"To eat breakfast."

"B-but…"

Just as he thought, she had no money with her. "My treat."

The hesitant look on her childish face vanished to be replaced by a broad smile. "Really?"

"Hai."

"OKAY!!!" she shot up from her seat to reach her full height and grinned from ear to ear joyously.

"Breakfast with Sir Hyuuga! Lead the way, Captain!"

Neji sighed again, then smiled; seeing her smile made him happy in a way. He had to thank whatever it was that made him know the kunoichi more… he watched Sakura as she hummed a tune to herself as she tied the red cloth of her hitai-ate, tightly pulling the knot at the back of her neck, starting her day cheerfully in his presence.

He had to admit, it was this part of her that somehow made him inwardly blush.

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The pair of brilliant ninja solemnly walked the streets on their way to a dim sum stand. Neji looked up with a hand above him; judging from the position of the sun that settled around a quarter from the north, it must have been around 9 AM already. The citizens of the village were all doing their normal rituals and deeds, some adults sweeping the sidewalks, some children running errands.

Three children were running around near where they were; they seem to be academy students as they were using random amateur seals in their supposedly modified tag game ninja style. One of them, a boy who was laughing sheepishly, softly bumped unto Sakura's back. The pinkhead stopped and looked around to see the child on his behind, muttering 'Ouch' all the while. Neji noticed this and halted as well.

Sakura smiled and helped the boy up on his feet. When the pain finally soothed the boy looked up, recognized the person he accidentally bumped into, and said, "Saku… Sakura-neechan?"

His two friends ran to him and looked at the one whom the boy bumped. At the sight of bright pink hair, their mouths formed an 'O'.

"Ah, Sakura-neechan! Sakura-neechan, right? As in Hokage-sama's student!"

Sakura nodded.

The boy who bumped into her bowed apologetically and said, "Sorry, I wasn't looking Nee-chan!"

"Nah, it's OK. Be careful next time."

The three children bowed bashfully at her and went back to the game they were playing, waving at her and grinning.

Neji watched the three kids leave and averted his gaze to the Sakura waving at them. What he had seen was a proof that the kunoichi he was walking with had acquired a degree of respect even from the children of the village. It must be quite an achievement for her, since years ago, she was only as normal as any ninja could be when it comes to combat. Now, he knew, Sakura also had a reputation not only as Tsunade's apprentice, but also as a medic-nin. He knew as well that the villagers he dubbed as Sakura's acquaintances respected her for that, but that respect will certainly go up a number of notches had they had any knowledge of what she was like as a friend and companion.

He noted how she could be soft as a pillow as she can also be a devastating volcano when angered. It must be that trait which women naturally posses, but oddly more noticeable was this within her; her moods were safe to say usually at its extreme and thankfully do not last for a long while, her childish antics on the most little things like seeing a bunny hop or a newborn baby at the hospital he found quite cute, her fists uprooting almost a fifth of all trees in the forests either from training or releasing stress never fail to amaze him…

He knew what made her quite a sight to behold were her eyes, those deep mint orbs that showcase at least around ten emotions per day, constantly changing and ever unpredictable. It was amusing how her eyes would practically shine when she'd laugh in mirth, or even how frightening they would darken when she's mad and ready to send you straight to hell.

He actually had witnessed a piece of her wrath a few times; fortunately it was not him who had been the object of her fury but a hyperactive, loud blue-eyed blonde who goes by the name Uzumaki Naruto.

Sakura walked up to him when he asked, "Do you know those children?"

She grinned broadly and shrugged her shoulders before saying, "Nope. But they sure do know me. Man, am I popular or what!" She added smugly.

The white-eyed Hyuuga inwardly sighed and thought. _'At least not notorious. Wouldn't monstrous strength and pink hair be an amazingly unique combo for a simple young girl named Haruno Sakura?'_

"Oh, there's the food stand. Let's go Neji!"

He followed her all the way to the dim sum stand, smiling at the bouncing cute girl that walked ahead of him.

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**A/N:** Tch, not an interesting chapter. Nyah. I have more in my mind, and hopefully as the story progresses, this becomes more interesting. Just be on a lookout for more. Oh yeah, Shikamaru will pop out sometime soon, so don't worry ShikaSaku fans! And about this Okama Hatsuki guy and Orochimaru, too! The romance may be slow, but don't worry… Patience is a virtue. Waaaaahhh!!!


End file.
